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The following is a transcript of an interview with astronaut and Artemis crew member Kate Rubins that aired Sunday, August 28, 2022, on “Face the Nation.”
MAJOR GARRETT: Joining us now is astronaut Kate Rubins, a candidate for a future manned Artemis mission. She joins us from the Kennedy Space Center. Dr. Rubins, good morning. This is a test flight. What are you looking for in terms of safety as you assess what we’re about to see in the coming days?
Dr. KATE RUBINS: Good morning, great to be with you. As you said, this is a test flight. So one of the reasons we test before we put people on top of this incredible machine is to really push the envelope. So from an engineering perspective, one of our main goals is to look at the heat shield. In order to get the heat shield at that 5,000 degree heat and– and check out all of our targets around the moon, we have to do this test launch. So we’re looking for things like the charge to come out, the launch. And then we’re really into re-entry for the heat shield and capsule recovery.
MAJOR GARRETT: And for those who may remember as I do Apollo, what is the difference between the heat shield then and the heat shield voltage now?
Dr. RUBINS: Yes, so we have similar profiles and similar reentry rates. But the materials are completely different. So you know, we’ve had 50 years in the interim to adopt many of these modern advances in materials science. I’m working on the spacesuits and we’re actually adapting a lot of them as well as our new spacesuit design.
MAJOR GARRETT: I mentioned that I remember Apollo, I don’t remember Mercury, but I remember all the national excitement around the space exploration projects, then they were all almost entirely led by white men. There’s more diversity for women and for people of color at NASA now, talk about the component that includes women like you at Artemis and everything else that NASA is doing right now.
Dr. RUBINS: Yeah, I think one of the great things about the astronaut corps these days is that we don’t look at it in categories anymore. We have such a diverse and talented workforce. And you see this throughout NASA if you look at all the centers in the US. So our astronaut class, we have a variety of backgrounds. You know, we have scientists, engineers, fighter pilots, we have military and civilians. We have, of course, opened those doors to women and people of color. And it’s great to interact with these people from – from many different backgrounds and see what they all bring to the program.
MAJOR GARRETT: And Dr. Rubins for those who might say, Yes, it’s been 50 years since we’ve been on the moon, should we go back? And is that the only thing we are trying to achieve? And doesn’t it feel kind of repetitive? What would you tell them?
Dr. RUBINS: That’s a really good question. And we really have to come back, we’re going to come back in a completely different way. So the first part of this program is really to establish a sustained lunar presence on the lunar surface, and then both in orbit around the moon, that helps us prepare for Mars, we really need to learn how to work long-term in the deep space for us to explore, and the places we go are incredibly diverse. So Apollo was focused on a kind of fairly easy-to-reach equatorial area, we’re taking on the challenge of going to the polar regions, these permanently shadowed regions, they’re always in darkness. We found water ice there. And it’s — water ice is so important for things like building fuel for a Mars mission. And many of the scientific discoveries, we have volatile compounds in water ice, can unlock a lot about how the earth and our solar system formed.
MAJOR GARRETT: And for a layman like me, should we think of the Moon as a potential launch pad for this eventual exploration of Mars?
Dr. RUBINS: Absolutely, absolutely it could be, you know, it’s also a place where we’ll probably take vehicles and do some long-term deep space checks before we really commit to a trip to Mars. And this is also where we will learn how to perform extensive surface operations. So we’re building new planetary suits. We’re learning how we can get people to live in rovers, how they can partner with human robots to cover a lot of ground and explore a lot more. And what is it—what is it like to have this permanent presence on another planetary body.
MAJOR GARRETT: So you’re a candidate for one of those Artemis astronauts. So what will tomorrow hold for you personally? Your level of personal scientific anticipation and perhaps apprehension?
Dr. RUBINS: Yes, we’ve talked about it with the other astronauts that are here. And everybody said, you know when, when it’s your launch, you get calmer and calmer as you get closer to the launch because you’ve trained for, you know, your procedures, you’ve been in the simulator for 1,000 hours , so I mean, you’re just absolutely calm until the moment you take off. With this we are getting more and more nervous as we go. I think we’re all so excited about it. This is a test flight. So, you know, we temper our expectations. We have great weather in Florida and stuff like that. But-but we are very excited and we can feel the excitement building.
MAJOR GARRETT: And very quickly Dr. Rubins for America. Do you think this is a turning point in terms of the next phase of space exploration?
Dr. RUBINS: Absolutely, I do see that when I go talk to kids in classrooms in the United States and you tell them you know we’re going to the moon. And that’s something we haven’t had in a couple of decades in terms of something to inspire kids and provide this kind of research for the whole world to see.
MAJOR GARRETT: Dr. Kate Rubins, thank you very much. CBS News will have a special report tomorrow around 8:30 a.m. when the missile is expected to launch, and we’ll be right back.
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